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Credit: Inside the MagicDisney+ has once again axed dozens of pieces of content from its streaming service.
According to What’s On Disney Plus, over 80 titles have been removed without warning from Disney+ this week. The films and TV shows affected are a mix of both classic Disney titles, Disney Channel Originals, and ESPN documentaries.
Related: Disney Will Close Streaming Service in Some Countries Next Year
Some of the titles included in the list of axed content are:
- The Shaggy Dog
- Hello Dolly
- Richie Rich Christmas Wish
- Minute Men
- Teacher’s Pet
- Far from Home: The Adventures of Yellow Do
- Zenon: Girl Of The 21st Century
- Swiss Family Robinson
- Doug’s 1st Movie
- So Random
While Disney+ often removes content that has only been temporarily licensed for the platform, the majority of titles axed this week have been Disney-owned.
So far, these titles have only been removed in certain European countries, including the United Kingdom. However, in the past these content purges have rapidly spread to other countries. It also seems like this current purge is still ongoing, as more titles have disappeared from the platform in the past few days.
Disney+ first started removing titles from its service in May 2023. After revealing that Disney+ had lost four million subscribers in the first quarter of the year, Disney CEO Bob Iger and chief financial officer Christine McCarthy announced plans to cull content as part of a cost-cutting initiative. Titles removed in 2023 included the Disney+ fantasy series Willow, which spent just under six months on the platform.
The platform has previously explained that it uses viewership data to decide which content to remove. While some titles may be cult classics, Disney+ only chooses to remove shows or films that are bringing in low numbers – therefore making it harder for the business to justify paying licensing fees or artist residuals.
Other platforms – such as Max, Netflix, and Amazon Prime – also routinely remove content, with Max perhaps the most prolific of the bunch. The platform has attracted plenty of ire over the past two years for routinely writing off underperforming films and series, particularly from animation fans who claim that Warner Bros. treats the medium like it is “nothing.”
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